


The Tale of the Unhappy Stepdaughter and Her Oblivious Ball of Yarn

by monsieur_registrar



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Adventure, Character Study, Drama, Experimental Style, F/F, Fairy Tale Elements, Light Angst, Loneliness, Minor Original Character(s), Mythology References, Parody, Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Romance, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:15:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27346447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monsieur_registrar/pseuds/monsieur_registrar
Summary: How often do we wonder what love really is? Should we deserve it? Or may it happen with anyone without a reference to social status, achievements, luck? Amity Blight would like to know the truth. Perhaps, we all resemble to her as of this desire.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Kudos: 19





	1. She Was As Unhappy As a Baby Whose Candy Was Taken

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Сказка о несчастной падчерице и её недогадливом клубочке](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/708538) by Monsieur Registrar/Lerkoto Dark. 



> It is my translation of my own work written in Russian. Just before we start I want to say a huge thank you to my friends who helped me a lot with beta-reading :)
> 
> While writing this work, I was very inspired by the Bashkir mythology, Daughter's songs and the poems of Russian poet, joshi ikita (дзёси икита).
> 
> If you notice any mistakes, please let me know!

Once upon a time, on the Boiling Isles far, far away, a pale girl, with hair of pure aquamarine, was staring into vacancy. Her name was Amity Blight. She loved reading books aloud, drawing colourful comics in the morning, quietly musing on serious things while sitting on the windowsill in her insignificant room. Also, what was more important, she was desperately in love with her friend.

And that infatuation turned every single day of hers into a torture. A torture that was evoking the unanswered, just as her feelings, questions: what is love? Is it a bitter emotion, or after all, a personality trait that you learn over the years? Is it virtuous to love? All Amity knew was that her face was burning at the single mention of the sacred name. Her stomach was full of butterflies when the love of her life touched her skin. Her breath, even of the most inconsiderable thoughts about hazel-eyed girl, increased in no time just as her heartbeat did.

Thump. Thump. Thump. That was how such a big heart was responding in such a small body.

And that heart was ready to make the first move. Amity was thinking of the proper words, of the possible lines of their conversation for a long time already. She was persuading herself for a while that if such a simple date was worth doing it was worth doing well, that her friend mattered and she herself mattered. But for a longer time she was trying to take it easy, let it play itself out, without her naïve intention for keeping things on an even keel and bringing them into a perfect state. She needed to overcome this abyss between her lover and herself. That was why Amity was beating her head against her locker in the hall now. By that, she was mustering up the nerve and proud.

A knock. The second one. The last one.

A hurricane swept through beside her. Its wind made her grey tunic waver, exposed her to unkind, intense cold, and Amity viscerally looked behind. On impulse, she was going to give a public (or only her own) troublemaker a piece of mind but suddenly trailed off.

The troublemaker was Luz Noceda. Her simple-minded classmate, her former rival, her reckless friend and now, her love interest.

And this love interest was bruising along the wide hall at the moment, striving to turn round the corner and once for all get out of sight. Should Amity miss such a great opportunity to talk now that they met?

‘A-ah... Luz!’

The girl stopped, hastily slowing down a little by her small heels, and turned around to the call.

‘Oh! Hi, Amity!’ she discretely welcomed her until she continued her way but more slowly.

As if she was a tiny puppy which was attracted with its well-beloved treat, Amity hurried up to her surprisingly spiritless friend. Caught up to her, she held on her textbook tightly and folded it to the chest. She felt as if it could allay anxiety, could warm the cockles of her heart by its tender, soft whisper. As if it could support her the way her relatives never were able to.

Closed her eyes for a moment, she finally addressed to her dialogue partner (if it was actually possible to name her like that right now):

‘Luz, I just...’

‘Why do everyone speak English on the Boiling Isles?’ Luz tactlessly, roughly and in all innocence took the word. ‘How does it work? Isn't such an alien to a man culture of the Demon Realm supposed to be unique? And isn't it supposed to be unique not only for its obscure traditions, its mysterious religious faiths, its magic existence, its availability of different means of barter but for common, articulated speech?’

Silence.

‘Wait... W-what do you mean?’ the witch was lost.

‘Frankly speaking, I'm not sure myself,’ Luz smiled bitterly. ‘Sometimes you think about such an imperceptible thing as language and just become out of depth. Tell me, is everything around me just a dream, uh?’

Amity did not know what to answer. And this lack of knowledge even of these utter, spontaneous silly ideas (silly ideas that belonged to one and only Luz!) broke her heart.

‘¡Ja-ja! No-o-o, it is unlikely to have such a strong sleep need in a dream,’ the girl exhaustedly rubbed her eyes. ‘I will have a good rest later. Until then, onwards and upwards to the knowledge!’

And by hastening her steps, she rushed to it devoutly waiting for her and left Amity behind.

What is love? Is it a bitter emotion, or after all, a personality trait that you learn over the years? Is it virtuous to love? And most importantly, why is it so painful to remain silent and to be unassertive? Amity could not find the answers in the Azura book series because its characters never went unnoticed. They got their own way, fought for nobleness of their faith in the closed ones. Finally, they favoured each other with the kiss of utmost trust, while their true follower failed the third time in a day.

It seemed to her that just because of one person's obliviousness the whole world was becoming oblivious.

The reality faded, just as the light in the soul, named hope. What was Amity belonged to? Did anyone need her? Did she, so small and vulnerable, matter at all? The answers were never found; they just indifferently echoed in the atmosphere. And the unhappy girl, had lost her will power, the one she needed to put up with her fears, went the opposite to her house way after the last class.

She was not picky about the way she should choose. And she was uninterested in the reason why the disgusting and sharp thorns, spines, and prickles were over her pink leggings when she entered into a forest, a forest out of nowhere. She was unconscious: in her head there was a train of never-ending anxious thoughts. And it was impossible to withdraw them from chaos.

It was easier to admit that Amity thought about nothing, saw nothing, heard nothing. The Universe ceased to exist, left only loud feelings. Concern, pressure, dismay, and sorrow. She did not know what they meant. She just wanted to get up to her neck in this yearning and then come to the surface, completely got rid of oppressive sadness. May it be that if you hurt yourself twice as great, you will feel easiness for real?

The night was already falling when Amity, in an anguished turmoil, finally found her own island of calm. It was an old log of wood, which was negligently lying on the shore. Nuzzled against her knees, she was sitting here, windy and illuminated by echoes of the sky, as red as the bunch of magnificent buds of oleander. She was sitting here and still, she was thinking about nothing. However, this time that lack of thoughts was not putting pressure on her week shoulders.

_‘May it be that love is a feeling you have to earn..?’ a grief crossed her mind._

‘How could such a little girl be filled with such an enormous affliction?’

Amity opened her aurulent eyes in horror and shuddered. On the left hand of hers there was an ophidian monster, silently sitting. He reminded her of a mermaid: most of his body was human-like but his potential legs were substituted for a giant scaly tail. However, there were some details in this creature that made Amity uncertain in her conclusion about his biological species. He had no belly-button, there were gills at the site of his ribs, and a void abyss was yawning instead of his eyes. In front of her there was a senescent, eerie thing, without a name and descent.

‘Afraid of me?’ a heart-rending bass voice was born under the grin, then there was an abominable smell. Amity, disgusted, screwed up her face but for some reason she decided not to run away. ‘Don't worry, I won't bite you. Eating your own reflection is the bad manners and a feature of narcissism.’

‘Am I that ugly?’ unthinkingly, she bitterly made a joke. By the way, it did not touch her hearer on a sore place. ‘Well, that explains why Luz avoids me.’

She trailed off and closed her mouth with dirty hands abruptly. A fright was visible in her wide young eyes. The darkest secret of hers was revealed to the first comer. How foolish, how thoughtless of hers! For a moment, Amity even felt that her despair was replaced by rage. It was a rage towards herself. She turned red with anger and started to suffocate.

‘So, all the fuss over a girl like you?’ he uproariously burst into laughter, stroking his black as pitch beard and clapping the sand with his tail. ‘You amaze me!’

The rage got smaller. Although the laugh of this monster was supposed to insult Amity, it obviously did not fright her. There was something inviting in his alluring voice. There was something that inspired a rare feeling of trust. May it be that he was right insisting on their similarity? Otherwise, how to explain this subconscious wish to reveal him all your desired secrets, to pour your visceral heart to him?

Anyway, even though there could be a willingness to kill her hidden behind his enchanting charisma, she would not mind it. In this moment of a long-awaited soulfulness she had been bogged down in a lazy humility. Her attempts to attract the most precious thing that she had ever had in her life would still be insignificant, silly, disappointing. All her life would still be like that. She had nothing to lose, she was out of spirit to run away.

Suddenly, her mysterious companion decided to brassily stretch himself out the sand, his arms on the nape. Then Amity noticed that he had no arm-pits. There were only deep holes. The same abyss he had in his lifeless eyes. She wanted to understand this creature. To see under his snaky disguise a personality, a part of great variety of species, a part of something whole, meaningful.

‘Who are you?’ she asked, cocked her head to the side.

‘Yuha.’

It was a dry and short answer, giving no new or valuable information. Amity sighed with disappointment. It seemed that he wanted to make her start a conversation of too private things. And she, perhaps, wanted to talk to someone about it too.

‘Have you ever fallen in love, Yuha?’

‘Never. And those who were succeed in being my husband have died of abrosia.’

Thereafter, Amity tried to examine a grimace of savage satisfaction of his atrocity on his face (such a detail was attached to the global concept of monsters) but it showed no emotion. He did not move a muscle like he was already tired of following the society-given role.

‘Your husband...’ the girl innocently wondered and spoke out what had come uppermost to her tongue. ‘So, are you a woman?’

‘No, I'm not.’

‘A man?’

‘I'm nothing and concurrently everything,’ the creature emotionlesly gazed into the sky.

‘You sound too snobbish, Yuha.’

‘I've lived too much to sound as down-to-earth as you.’

‘Oh yeah, I get it,’ Amity sneered. ‘You know, you're not as scary as might appear at first sight... To be honest, I've never seen someone like you before. How long have you lived on an archipelago?’

‘For three thousand years.’

Amity was at a loss.

‘So, were you born here..?’

‘No, I wasn't. I was born very far from here. So far from here you can't even imagine. It's full of the great outdoors and the clearest water, the most holy mountains and the sweetest sunsets. Peace and quiet. Paradise. And in this paradise the only danger was I, benempt Ajdaha... and my husbands.’

Yuha was right when he said that Amity could not imagine every thing he described. She surely was very smart but his birthplace did not fit into the frames of her anarchic archipelago. That was why the girl decided to fasten upon the first and comprehensible string of logic.

‘It means that your real name is...’ she had to pause to be able to pronounce the new word. ‘Azh-duh-kha?’

‘Is “Ajdaha” very hard to pronounce to you? Ha-ha, I'm not even surprised,’ he smiled the way only drowned men smiled. ‘Still... No, you're wrong. My real name's Yuha and only, without a hark-back to the past. In my first five hundred years I was supposed to be ascended to Mount Qaf-Tau... However, clouds brought me here. It means that I was honoured to be named as Yuha for eternity.’

‘It looks like it is a tradition of your nation to change names over time.’

He chuckled at such a naïve point of view.

‘Well, let's say that you're right.’

‘Wow, then you've got an interesting people, that's for sure...’

Amity became silent, pensively resumed her previous thoughts about Luz. Anyhow, no matter how old and experienced Yuha was, he could not explain to her what love was and what to do with it, how to react on it. Should she surrender herself to despair the way she had already done? Or should she fondly go on attempting to confess her love? And what would be behind this confession? Would it be a return of affection or a rejection?

At this thought she got shivers running up and down her spine. Was it because Luz might return to her feeling, or was it because Luz might also reject her, she could not tell. All she knew that she wanted to run away from such an inner world of hers.

‘You still want to know if your girl can love you?’ Yuha asked all of a sudden.

He never loved and was unlikely to ever do. How could he relate to these spiritual torments? How could he give her a proper answer?

‘Yeah... I suppose,’ there was an uncertainty in her voice.

‘So, who is this girl?’

‘She's the sunshine of my life,’ Amity answered, surprisingly to herself. She sighed, decided not to hide her obvious emotions. ‘She has the eyes, as light as the richest and the most delicate chocolate. She has a laugh, as ringing as the trembling gold. And she has a smile, as beaming as the morning sun. In other words, she's a human.’

‘Oh boy. A human... You see, I know a lot about the Human Realm.’

‘You do?’ Amity's ears twitched, and she curiously took a look at her dialogue partner.

Perhaps, her blind confidence flattered him.

‘Yes. I... had the occasion to observe some “specimens”. And the love they had always happened the same way.’

‘Which way?’ hope emerged in the sunny eyes with a vengeance.

He smiled, definitely was up to no good, but Amity did not notice any sign of his malice. He could not fib even a little, could he?

‘They recalled the tale of the stepdaughter and projected it onto their lives.’

‘The tale..? Are you serious right now?’ it somewhat seemed that Yuha was just making fun of her but he did not even tried to force a laugh as he did earlier. That was why Amity, in ignorance of any other experts of people, except Luz for sure, decided to take wanderer's word for it.

‘Yes. People don't have any good legends as you do but they have the insightful fairy tales they are proud of. These fairy tales help them to find themselves in this big world and do the right thing.’

To find yourself in this big world and do the right thing...

‘Well... And what this “tale of the stepdaughter” is all about?’

‘It is about the stepdaughter as you can tell from the title,’ Yuha did not even creepily grinned, though this kind of a joke was obvious. He was too focused on his story. ‘Gulbika, so her name was, was young and beautiful but the most part of her life she remained deeply unhappy.’

‘Gulbika? Is it a real name?’ Amity wondered.

‘A “flower” and a “girl”, yes... Anyway, don't interrupt me. If you've got any questions, ask them afterwards,’ Yuha sighed, frowned. ‘And so, Gulbika's tragedy involved the fact that her stepmother didn't like her at all. She was always mad at her, made her work really hard and never spoke good words about her.’

Her enthusiasm evaporated in no time. Bitterness replaced it. Amity had first-hand knowledge how it felt when your birth mother treated you like dirt. When your close relative, as one would think, controlled your social circle, derided the value of your success, criticised your innocent hobbies, permanently shamed you in front of your father, your siblings, and then punished you for any fault of yours though such a fault could be not even a real offence. Generally, she tried her best to take away your feeling of being loved. It is difficult not to become unhappy, emotionally deformed after that.

‘The thing she loved the most was to make Gulbika spin yarns. One day her work didn't please her stepmother so much that the latter with urgency threw out the ball of yarn and commanded her to look for it. Gulbika had been crying bitterly for a long time, while trying to find the ball of yarn in the house, until she finally went outside to search for it. Altogether, she got through the whole adventure, asking around the village, and then walked on small log cabin in which an elderly woman was spinning yarn. When she heard that the girl would be turned from the door if she returned without the small ball, she invited Gulbika to stay at her home and help her with the housework. In gratitude for the excellently executed work, for her patient labour, Gulbika was rewarded with something more valuable than the cheap ball of yarn. She got the gold. A chest full of gold. Do you know how her stepmother reacted on it?’

‘How?’

‘She started to love her and never victimised her,’ Yuha summarised.

‘It is... a very strange tale,’ Amity could not believe her ears. All fairy tale canons were put to complete rout. ‘What's the moral of it? If there's any...’

‘If you want to be loved, you will do the same as Gulbika did. You know, love is artificial. It's like magic discoveries, it's gained only by those creatures who deserve it.’

There was a good deal of truth in his words. Luz gained to learn magic. She really wanted it, she had done a lot of things to achieve her purposes, and most of all, she deserved to fulfil her dream. And what about Amity? Did she deserve such a strong human? What really special did she do during the whole day to make Luz prioritise time with her and listen to her? She did nothing.

‘...I think you probably believe deep inside your heart too that love should be deserved,’ Yuha went on as if he could read wizardess' mind. ‘If not, you can't gain it, right? Hence, just deserve it by impressing your human.’

‘And how do I do it? She doesn't look like a person whose love is rated with gold quantity.’

‘You don't need gold,’ he smiled mischievously. It looked the ugliest way and reminded Amity of his blood-thirsty essence.

‘What do you mean?’

‘A ball of yarn spun by a human is all you need. It always leads to something your most cherished person considers as the greatest wealth. It can be spiritual, it can be material. The point is, this ball leads only if you are on your best behavior the whole journey the way you deserve to get this wealth.’

‘Yarns? Spun by a human? Amazing. I'm on my way to look for them, ha-ha,’ she laughed nervously. Frankly speaking, she had other things to worry about than the sincere emotions. ‘You know, there are many of them on the Boiling Isles! There is also a bunch of humans, oh yeah.’

Amity, off the hinges, stood up, brushed herself off and headed home.

‘Thank you very much, Yuha, but I got to go. I have neither human balls of yarn nor love.’

‘Wait,’ he asked her calmly and Amity stopped. Somewhere in the back of her mind she hoped that Yuha would tell her about another way to impress her well-beloved girl. ‘There _is_ a ball of yarn. I personally have seen one in the forest.’

‘Why haven't you said it earlier?’ Amity brightened up and got back to the old log. ‘Where can I find it?’

‘I can't tell or show you because it won't be right then. But I know where you can get a map.’

Yuha shared with her that the map was hidden in the Bonesborough Library's book that had not been opened for decades. He even gave Amity a title. However, he could not formulate a cogent response as to how he knew it, who put this map in this exact book and why the ball of yarn needed such a secret and special route at all. To all the questions he just wished Amity godspeed and trooped away, dropped a delicate request to be careful on her way home.

Thought the matter over, Amity came to the conclusion that she was pleasantly inspired by this meeting. All she had to do was to visit the library in the morning and then go to the forest. And so, the ball of yarn would be in her pocket. There it is, the artificial and exacting love! How could she never give a thought to this... Proud, dignity, those virtues elder Blights glorified were all significant because they helped to gain love.

All these fights with her mother, her siblings, her father... Tortured perfectionism, dyeing her hair, respectable social circle, excellent schooling, status as the Hexside top student, mastering magic, forced desire to be part of the Emperor's Coven, and good marriage. All of these were no more than a hint, a hidden message to make wizardess finally understand: love of close ones must be deserved. It was not like her achievements were not enough to them. It was not like they devalued her mileage, no. It was she who did not try hard enough, who was on the wrong track. She who did not think at all about where love, this fake feeling, came from. O how Amity was oblivious all this time!

In a state of euphoria, finally comprehended the mysteries of the world, she, as quiet and stealthy as a mouse, sneaked into her room in the Blight manor. She waited until everyone in the house fell asleep and scrupulously set up a plan in her diary while drawing sweet sketches of how Luz would be happy to get... no matter what. What was more important was that she would be happy because there, at her side, would be a wizardess as worthy as this human. And then this exact wizardess herself would become the happiest person. She would be the noblest witch across the whole Boiling Isles!

Nevertheless, a day later, Amity got lost and did not fulfil all her dreams.


	2. She Was the Most Oblivious Human in the Wide World

Midday. Midday was a quintessential sign of many important things. It was a sign of the long-awaited break after a series of difficult subjects. It was a sign of a pleasant pastime with your friends in the massive school's halls. And it was also a sign of a chance to cheat off your generous classmate's homework. Finally, what mattered more, midday signified a hearty lunch in the local cafeterias.

The first person within the walls of the large dining-hall was always a human with brown skin and a bit shaggy short hair-cut. She never ordered anything in the canteen and just passed through a variety of tables at full speed until she found herself near the table with seats for four. There was an amazing blurry forest view. She loved sitting with her back to the mosaic stained-glass window featuring a scene of Hexside foundation. From this angle, it was easier for her to have an eye on the front door, and she considered giving the best places to her friends as noble.

She always brought with herself a paper lunch bag, gently, only to speed up the waiting time, set her home meal and then, rested her elbow on the table and put on her adorable smirk, gazed on the door. The name of that girl was Luz, and she could eat only human, just as she was, food.

Willow arrived at ten minutes. She was a young witch with hair as blue as a bunch of pure sapphires. Despite her timid pace, sometimes becoming too much slowed, she was even a somewhat self-confident, very tender, and soft girl. Hands of hers were especially like that; in a rare moment of despair, they reminded Luz of her devoted mother's ones.

Willow always got sunny when she saw the occupied seat near the window. She sat down next to it and, full of happiness dedicated to being in the plant track, instantly started to share her impressions of morning classes. Much to Luz's surprise, there were many of these impressions. Day to day, every one of them differed from each other.

During such a conversation, Luz seldom got lost in contemplation of her excited and cheerful friend's rosy cheeks and thought that they reminded her of someone, too. However, this kind of person was not supposed to be the above-mentioned Camila Noceda.

At fifteen minutes, Gus was sitting in his seat. He was a dark-skinned boy with bright eyes. He was short and commonly left his classes for break gazing into the magazine about human culture. That was why he, on his way to the cafeteria, often got in trouble. That trouble could be an unexpected encounter with Boscha and her friends, or that trouble could be an entangled route. And that was also why he was so late in the cafeteria.

He always brought with himself some tea raised by him, not without the help and advice from Willow, and, altruistically, in honour of his pure love to the whole mankind gave it to Luz. The latter, with a warm smile she was notable for, took the accepted gift of his and hid behind every sip of hers that she still preferred freshly brewed coffee over too-sweet aftertaste. At least, tea was better than nothing. In the Demon Realm, you had to make many efforts to find something edible for travellers from other realms.

When this trio was at the same table, only then every one of them began to eat, talk, and have fun.

‘Phew, you've got challenging exams here at Hexside. They're more difficult than the ones that were at my previous school, ’ Luz suddenly said, still glancing at the door. ‘I had to repeat all my notes and sleep only a few hours after school in the daytime. I was so afraid of being kicked out...’

Twenty minutes to one was the time when there were shining eyes of amber honey colour at the doorway of the cafeteria.

‘I don't know... It seems to me that you did a great job,’ Gus supported his friend while pushing not-so-appealing lunch of his around on the plate. ‘Well, at least for a human who has to cast magic by glyphs...’

This time there was no sign of Amity and it bothered Luz so much. As early as the first half of the day she confusedly noticed that the studies of hers did not go as planned. And now when daily ritual of hers was disturbed, an anxiety of hers was picking up pace.

‘And you tried your best,’ Willow's raspy voice gathered up the thread, ‘we even couldn't calmly talk to you on the break the whole week! Such a devotion to studying must bear fruit. Maybe, you'll eventually become more successful than Amity...’ she even paused to think about such an unbelievable perspective.

Luz did not know that in the morning Amity arranged by secret plotting some situations when they unexpectedly bumped into each other. All of them were meant to give the witch a chance to see those notable for a special charm hazel eyes, already became a home for her. She also did not know that Amity preferred to eat outside, in the small park under the shadow of a large pine. It let her to save private space of hers and in advance got rid of any possible mockery because of pink paper lunch bag of hers with a cute bunny on it.

Frankly speaking, she still ate there but in this case she never touched her meat sandwiches. These little sarnies were meant to be a future imitation of a lunch in the cafeteria, so to talk with Luz and her friends during the break and to not attract a lot of attention. All of these sacrifices existed only to take off the boisterous witch heart of hers.

‘Talking of Amity. Isn't she supposed to come here already?’ the leg Luz leaned on feverishly twitched under the table. The eyes of the girl previously fixed on the front door were passing over overcrowded dining-hall.

Willow and Gus looked at one another.

‘To be honest, I didn't see her in general today,’ the boy answered, shrugged.

‘Me too,’ the other witch noticed, worried. ‘It's strange... Maybe, she got ill?’

‘She can't be ill,’ Luz was miserably lost in thought, with head of hers low. ‘She attended classes even with a broken leg. What could silly cold do to her?’

‘Ahem, Luz, here on the Boiling Isles colds aren't so sil...’ Gus just started.

However, he was rashly interrupted by Willow:

‘Then it's possible that Amity's still busy with her studies. You know, every track has its own timetable of exams,’ she nervously smiled and then threatened the inopportunely indiscreet friend of hers with severe look.

‘You're right...’ Luz agreed, but without a special enthusiasm, still absorbed in thought. ‘I guess, it is so...’

By the end of the break there was still no word about Amity. She did not appear in the noisy halls, being red and bubbling out one by one spontaneous phrases at the sight of Luz. Bright, melodious voice of hers, unconsciously flattering the round ears, was not heard from overcrowded classrooms. The aquamarine curls of hers did not sprinkle among bypassers. It seemed like the girl purposely avoided friend of hers. Moreover, she did so in a very skillful way since no one could give a valid answer to the question if they had seen the wizardess today.

They did not properly chat for about seven oppressive days. May it be that Luz hurt her by that?

‘¿Qué he hecho mal?’ the girl quietly whispered, scrupulously inspecting Hexside and thinking of previous days events. She could not remember anything.

Fortunately, in an hour she managed to meet up with Emira and Edric who were aimlessly walking about the school, from sheer boredom striving to make fun of the first classmate they would meet. How could it be possible that the twins were not shirking school but Amity was? Luz could not get brown head of hers around abnormality of current circumstances.

She did not learn a lot from the conversation. Previous night Amity just as usual had squabbled with siblings about private space of hers. Present morning she just as usual had packed all stuff of hers, suddenly took with it an extra bag full of, as Edric suggested, garbage, and had sprightly slammed the front door. There was nothing suspicious, wasn't there? Perhaps, she had just left on a sleepover with friends of hers. Anyhow, Edric nor Emira considered it necessary to worry about their little sister's being absent at school. They actually wished to be absent, too...

At the end of the day, fully desperate and lost in the scary unknown, Luz called Gus and Willow into ‘a very important session.’

‘I don't know where to look for her!’ the girl exclaimed, tensely scrutinising the eyes of her friends. ‘You yourself understand that it's not okay, right? She's our friend. We can't leave things as they are.’

Gus, frowned and discomposedly looked at tumultuous fellow of his, carefully backslapping her, without any words to answer.

‘Luz, you've seen her siblings. Maybe, they know where Amity could go?’ Willow tried to help.

‘No,’ Luz pursed her mouth. ‘Poor Emira and Edric, they don't realise at all in which danger their sister can be right now. “Mittens packed all her stuff and hastened to avoid her morning dose of siblings' love” are innocent words of theirs... Well, yes, later Emira joked at her “dork” hideaway in the library and said something about the secret meeting of Azura Book Club but it's impossible! If there was such a meeting, Amity would definitely invite me and then...’

Willow, raised eyebrows of hers, sceptically reacted on the obvious solution of the present situation and just silently kept an eye on the friend of hers, expecting her to realise. By the way, it did not take a lot of time.

‘Oh!’ she exclaimed. ‘Right! The library! It just happens that we haven't even tried to look for her there!’

It took less than an hour for them to get to the façade of a colossal building. It was mostly because of Luz's vigor raised from the ashes. The girl was so excited, so fast and so careless (she was close to get lost in the narrow streets of the tremendous town a few times as she was too focused on the passionate monologue of hers) that Willow nor Gus could give her a chance to leave them behind. She genuinely believed that the solution was still waiting for her among book racks.

Amity was not in the Kid's Corner just as there was no evidence of her presence. Luz did not even get upset. She took friends of hers there just in case only to assure herself that they would not miss any of the lost witch's possible routes. Luz also did not get upset when during the searching in every great halls some the meanest librarians gave her an inappropriate lecture for the same inappropriate behavior of hers.

It made sense to get upset near the romance wing where Amity Blight's secret hideaway entry was hidden. Luz was already preparing to take the second-rate romantic book with some spice of fantastic fiction named ‘The Lone Witch and Secret Room’ but a soft hand stopped her.

‘Luz?’ Willow said. ‘Are you sure that we should go with you?’

‘Of course! What's it all about?’

‘Amity may trust you but if she may trust us the same?’ worried, she was trying to call for her friend's nobleness. ‘I think it'll be unfair to her if you admit us to her hideaway without her permission.’

‘Yes, Willow's right,’ Gus agreed while reading the recently found manga ‘Mysterious Story of Devil’. ‘We'll wait for you in the Kid's Corner.’

‘Guys,’ Luz still decided to take the book and a book rack stridently moved, ‘she's your friend, too. I don't think that such little things are valid when there's a hum...’ she trailed off. ‘I meant “witch”. A witch life on the line. Let's go.’

Unwillingly, still hesitated between the common sense and their own curiosity, Willow and Gus looked at one another and at the last moment chose to follow the girl. The pleasant picture was opened in front of their eyes. There were many bookshelves with the most interesting books from all the Boiling Isles on them, fairy lights hanging from the ceiling and imitating starry heavens, and also the most comfortable table, a chair, and the mountain of pillows nearby. It did not just look nice, it did look perfect for a teenager who looked for a solitude.

‘This is...’ Gus was surprised. ‘Amazing!’

‘How had Amity built such a place..?’ the witch near him whispered.

‘I think, this room had been built before her. She just found this place and fit it up nicely...’ Luz suddenly shook head of hers. They went to the hideaway but the person they were looking for was not there. ‘We got to collect themselves! Quick, search for anything significant. Little notes, sketchy drawings, or the pieces of paper that are crumpled up... Everything that could point the way Amity went.’

‘Whoa, a hand-made cover,’ the boy instantly attracted all the attention, had taken the first available book. ‘“I wish I was born in other circumstances...”’

‘No!’ Luz exclaimed, snatching another person's thoughts out of his hands. ‘We mustn't read it. It's private!’

‘Private?’

‘It's Amity's dairy, Gus,’ Willow clarified.

‘Shouldn't her diary say where she went?’ the easy-going boy went on questioning. Luz's actions and Willow's explanations weirdly seemed to him much more incomprehensible than hyperbolic geometry of bewitched spaces.

‘Well, it should but...’ Luz hesitated, shifting weight from one foot to the other and looking at the perplexed friends of hers from time to time with sad eyes of hers. ‘It's unfair...’

‘It was unfair to bring us here, Luz. Now there's a witch life on the line,’ the wizardess with glasses smiled, citing the previous talk of theirs.

‘Yes but I...’ the girl put her own finger up in defence but stopped, realised there were some seeds of logic in her own quote. ‘Fine. You're right. Maybe, there's really nothing wrong if we just look for the required information in her last notes.’

She faint-heartedly half-opened the cute and welcoming diary, keeping a thought in a mind of hers that it was for the sake of Amity. Then she was lingeringly turning the pages full of signs of graceful handwriting. She was not sure if she had the access to such a private information (in general, the problem was in the conflict they had a month ago which involved this exact diary. Nevertheless, Luz nor Amity could be named as friends at all then, so...) until the loud cough of Gus encouraged her to start reading.

‘Okay, okay. “I've romanced her perfect image and now it's haunting me everywhere. Even when I sleep. Once we just met each other's eyes and there was a really big distance between us but I panicked anyway. And I ran away again to keep my mind from straggling. Yeah, maybe I looked very ridiculous but if she knew the truth just by reading it in my eyes, I swear I'd burn with shame...”’

‘Wow, Amity likes someone,’ Gus improperly made a point. ‘I've always thought that she's interested only in joining the Emperor's Coven.’

‘Gus!’ Willow exclaimed, ordering him to stop talking.

Luz found her friend's remarks soothing, that was why she did not mutter at him at all. To some extent, he was even right. Amity seemed too serious for love and dates... No matter what, Luz wondered who was this mystery girl Amity was afraid of meeting eyes of? She only had to hope that her friend's favoured one was a person of worth. Not a bully like Boscha and her company with whom Amity used to hang around. Sighed, somewhat confused by the train of questions in a mind of hers, she turned some more pages.

‘“How ironic that tears can scorch like that. All that I wanted was only not to be unwanted! I'm really, really sorry, I shouldn't have said rude things like that! I shouldn't have overreacted like that... How to redeem myself!? The very idea of that; how do I still allow myself to sincerely wonder why nobody wants me after so many mistakes of mine...” Poor Amity. We must find her... and hug her!’

Brushed away a furtive tear, Luz turned the pages again.

‘“To be honest, I even find it soothing when I'm caged up within these four walls. Active life is necessary for those only who live it without questioning. Anyway, this ‘lonely existence’ sounds not that bad at all. Extroverts are just spinning yarn, ha. I'm just afraid that one day I'll lose my mind...”’

The fingers of hers slept and she felt that all body of hers was attacked by shivers. This bloodcurdling feeling was incomparable. As if by these words the most important person swears here and now that they are about to hurt themselves, even though it can be not so. It was unbearably anxious for her to read such horrible thoughts of someone she had always seen a role model in. The thoughts of the witch who could be sincerely in love with life and, therefore, wanted to gain an enormous success in it. Now all Luz could see was the seamy side of this need to be perfect. And she was not able to comfort Amity or change the situation for the better... All she had were the last pages to turn.

‘“After all, where's my proud? I'll dare to be wanted. To be noticed. Now or never. I'll tell Luz that I love...”’

The girl, got frantic, shut the book. Eyes of hers instinctively got wider. Cheeks of hers got brightly red. And body of hers was attacked by new wave of shivers but this time they meant pure horror. She could not move, she could not talk; she was drowning in realisation. All these confused glances, this restrained laugh, these awkward smiles... All of them had been dedicated only to her and she had not even had a clue.

Her heart beat more rapidly than usual.

‘Let me do it,’ Willow gently took the diary away. She knew what kind of thoughts Luz were struggling with right now. Moreover, she had been up to Amity's feelings for a long time. It was as clear as two and two. ‘Well... The last note: “Yuha told me that the map was in the least popular library book. I expected to see something like ‘Human mythology’”...’

‘Hey!’ Gus set himself against such an insult.

Willow only chuckled, rearranged glasses of hers and went on reading:

‘“...but what was my surprise at finding ‘616 Shades of Demonic. The Guide to the Doubtful Ones’. I dared not to read a line from it. This ‘masterpiece’ looked too obscene even for such a bookworm as me. Fortunately, I've found someone's pencilled route to this stupid ball of yarn, so all I have to do is to reach it and it'll do everything for me.”’

‘So, “616 Shades of Demonic”. Maybe, we're lucky enough to have Amity left the original map in the book and went with its copy?’ the boy guessed.

They immediately put the diary back, being sure that there was no map in it, and started to look for the mentioned book. First, they explored every bookshelf in the room, then, met with failure, they pounced on the desk. There still were some things on it.

Meanwhile, Luz was so buried in thought that she went on standing still and staring straight before her. Face of hers was still full of hues of red. She perfectly understood that she was confused by such a discovery. However, it was a mystery for her what was confusing her more. Was it the fact that she had just read a very private information, or was it the fact that this exact information was dedicated only to her. How was she supposed to understand that..?

‘Luz?’ Gus, as it seemed that, said again, raised eyebrows of his.

‘Oh, right!’ the girl woke from a stupor, strenuously trying to remember the previous conversation of theirs. ‘...The map. Did you find it?’

‘Yeah! Look at this.’

The book's cover definitely left a great deal to be desired. In the black background a strand rope was painted, here and there sprinkled over by spots of the wine seen from behind. The trio, followed Amity's advice, decided not to read the book. Frankly speaking, they did not have time for that at all. The shabby old map rested on the last page and was formerly used as a source for copying as there were many pencils messily lied on the table.

The routing line was wandering through the forest, even consciously absconded from the Owl House in some places, and its end of red cross was in the location far away from the town. On second thought, Luz guessed that she had already been nearby. Once in this neck of the woods she had lost Owlbert and with effort brought him back.

‘Why did she go this treacherous path alone..?’ Willow whispered.

Luz was not afraid of adventures. Moreover, she thought of them as of the challenge when it came to the most cherished individuals of hers. One of them was Amity Blight who was possibly sitting on a tree stump now and freezing from the night cold. There was not a moment to lose; they must go after the wizardess right now.

Initially, Gus and Willow tried to persuade the friend of theirs to wait till morning at least, only to make sure that Amity would not be able to come back home herself. However, Luz was adamant. She depictured devastating scenes of what kind of eerie events could happen with the lost girl, what deep sorrow parents and siblings of hers would feel if she would not be rescued.

Then the friends of hers doubted if their own parents would not start to feel deep sorrow and get at them because they decided to go in the thick and unknown forest late at night. In response, Luz, put a hand of hers to the heart of hers, proudly made an oath to make sure that the four of them would definitely come back home safe and sound. She even came up with an idea to tell adults that they went on a sleepover to the house of hers to do the biology homework. That was why so many things were necessary to take with them.

Willow and Gus gave up because of such serious and reasoned arguments though they were still not sure about this affair. Needless to say, they both wanted to help Amity but something at the back of their minds told them: ‘No good will come of it.’ By the way, after their yes triumphant Luz cared little about all their doubts and she said good night to them, set a time (just in an hour) and a location (the Owl House).

Unlike the witch friends of hers, Luz did not have problems with telling Eda and King about her night ‘rendezvous.’ They even wished her godspeed and gave her a word of absurd advice about the water she should drink and the plants she should eat if she, yet still, got lost. Of course, Eda also added that she would ask Hooty to set out in search of her in a week if Luz did not come back home. However, the latter still should not hold breath of hers. Luz just smiled, before leaving pecked grouchy King on the forehead and closed the front door with relief.

And then anxiety overtook body of hers with much more weight. Everything did not feel right. As if Luz was still sleeping and dreaming about the most nightmarish dream of all possible ones. Throughout her conscious life she only wished to just live it, probably, even innocently resigned herself to the fatality of it. The main goal of hers was just to follow her own desires, turn them into reality, become a person she could admire, could be proud of. She just wanted to be herself.

However, she did not know where she should begin. She did not know who was to love in the young heart of hers. All these years she was desperately tortured by paradoxes. People around her, this existed in its own canons society, said over and over again that she was wrong. They told her that she was only a silly child dreaming of something fantastic, of something utopian, of something that was not possible to create. Every day of hers they tried to din axiom into the ears of hers. The axiom telling her that she did not meet the standards of an ordinary human, that in such a case she was not even a genius to be forgiven for that.

She must. That was hidden behind every word of theirs. She must follow the crowd. It sounded like a compulsive order, like a voluntary-compulsory action. Even if this road led to the fork where one path was to the happy side, to the side full of joy of getting through life, and where another path was to the side of achievements of the rest of humankind (but there she would lose self-esteem of hers, there this humankind would not let her achieve a success on her own), she had no choice of her own.

Expressing your individuality meant censure. She got this true word-perfect for all the time teachers of hers, rare friends of hers, even birth mother of hers had been trying to make her over. She had fought against them, had made an enormous effort to prove that she was worth something. And the longer they tried to put her down, the more often an initially innocent but soon a devouring from within thought crossed mind of hers: why to resist? For the purpose of what good cause did she do that?

She wanted to know whether fulfilling a wish regardless of someone else's hearsay was selfish. And if it was, then what was it, her self? Was being socially acceptable the same to not be your family's disgrace? Or was she just viewing the situation at a wrong angle? The answers were slipping away as if they were doing it by abusing her with malicious intent, even in this magical world from dreams of hers, on these Boiling Isles. While the answers were not there, the questions meant only an inner conflict. As long as she held ground of hers, all these contradictions would characterise a personality of hers.

And she was tired of contradictions.

Up to that moment, Luz never wondered if she liked Amity romantically. In fact, she was never given to the thoughts about basic human feelings, except those that strangulated organs of hers from within. But even they bothered her only in the Human Realm. Now, she faced with their new, more powerful echo; with love from the one she never could think of that way. And this facing with it made her afraid, made her tremble with loathing for herself, made her suffer the piercing chills. She could not demonstrate her will-power any more, no, not in the Demon Realm. It seemed to her that the only correct solution was an escape, an intention to give up all this searching for the witch with the gentlest laugh among two realms and then, to wake up.

Perhaps, it would be a lot easier if she never learnt about Amity Blight's feelings. Perhaps, if right now there was a poison which could erase the past, the girl would immediately drink it... Amity was so in need of an answer, she was so worthy of honesty, but Luz could not so much, did not want so much to give this answer because she did not eager for admiting to its existence in front of herself. Yes, Amity deserved to get an answer but Luz... Luz supposed that it would be easier for her to continue to belie inner thoughts.

There could be no mistake about it. It would be a lot easier if she could turn back the clock, back to those days when they were only friends and never overstepped this damned mark of their relationship.

‘May you sit already?’ Luz heard a boyish voice.

Gus, confused, looked out on her, gave up on all his tries to set up a tent off a bonfire. Right. They had been walking this forest over the course of several hours but Luz did not remember exactly how many. She was so absorbed in thought that she did not even notice that Willow had asked her and Gus to set up camp to take rest and finally eat. She did not feel at all up to that moment how much legs of hers hurt and how painfully stomach of hers growled.

‘Here,’ the girl with glasses offered Luz a sweet, juicy apple when she finally sat down a free log near the bonfire. For some reason, the flame did not warm her and even did not keep anything what looked like toasty as it usually happened during a friendly trip. ‘I took it out your bag while you were standing still.’

Luz did not hurry to eat dinner, gave the friend of hers a lost glance. She was about to say something, something very important, but to no avail. Thoughts of hers did not want to be compiled at all.

‘Luz, we'll eat, gain strength and instantly go on our trip. I promise,’ Willow reassured her, warmed hands of hers by her own and left the innocent apple in them.

Put hood of hers up, the girl nodded and tried to focus on the food which had been kindly left in addition to the apple by Willow. The latter quickly returned to cooking her own supplies. It was a pity that she could not see that good intentions of hers to calm down the friend of hers would go up in smoke.

Yesterday Luz could eat with pleasure even that meal which was cooked (if to be honest, which was actually bought in the market) by Eda, that forbidden to a human meal. However, now she was choking because of the smallest slices of bread specially made of wheat flour. Body of hers desperately complained about being hungry but Luz herself did not feel this starvation at all. Throat of hers became clenched every time she had something in the mouth of hers. All she had noticed about herself was that she was able only to be disgusted at food in hands of hers.

Within her there was a storm of indefinite feelings flavoured with anxiety. Uppermost in a mind of hers had been Amity. It was the same as if a soul of hers and Amity were becoming one. Luz was torn between. One part of hers was madly in fear, wanted to take flight right to the Owl House here and now, almost writhed in hysterics when it came to the approaching meeting with the lovely witch and to the possible confession in front of each other. Another part of hers was madly in fear and wanted to run away too, but still, it set the priority for the life of other creature. She knew that she could not throw the friend of hers in at the deep end. She could not turn around and leave; she must know that the cherished person of hers was safe and secure right now.

‘¡Amigos!’ Luz exclaimed, suddenly got on feet of hers and also started to shift weight from one foot to the other. ‘May we go already?’

Gus and Willow had only gone to eating dinnerette.

‘Af you can fee, ve ftill eat'n',’ the boy grumbled with mouth of his full.

‘Hurry up,’ Luz did not let up. ‘We got to head on. It's getting light already!’

Willow sighed.

‘Luz, if we don't rest right now, we won't have the energy to look for Amity. I understand that you want for her very much at the moment but...’

The girl clutched the brown head of hers, brightly blushed. The heart drummed. Could not Willow read a mind of hers all the way to there, right?

‘What!?’ she exclaimed, as she thought, with strong confidence in a voice of hers but that voice was traitorously cracking. ‘¡No! That's not the case! I don't need her the way you may have thought I need her!’

‘And which way have we thought?’ confused, Gus looked at Luz, then at Willow whose only answer was to wink at him unnoticed and smile.

‘How can you stay so calm!’ as red as a beetroot, the girl went on ranting. ‘Amity deserves to be safe right now...’ she sighed, looked down. ‘Maybe, she's alone at the moment, crying in the forest and thinking that she won't ever escape from this trap. Or maybe! Maybe, she's in great danger now! Her life's got a brush with death; every second counts while we're taking things easy!’

‘Luz!’ the girl with glasses was already standing in front of her friend and holding her by shoulders of hers, looking into eyes of hers. ‘Get real! Amity Blight's one of the most talented witches of her age. She achieved many things herself, went through a lot, and you know it. She'll be able to stand up for herself.’

She resumed seat of hers, made sure that Luz hung on very word of hers and did not fall into panic.

‘After all,’ she added, took a sip from magic thermos bottle of hers, ‘how can you spoil for the unknown for her but still deny with full confidence your need for her?’

‘Bwa-a-ah!’ Luz broke down.

She took a look around their extemporaneous camp and focused on the map taken along. If the friends of hers did not want to help her, so was it. She would find Amity herself and help her. And then all of them would unitedly come back home. And a few years later, they would look back on this nonsense with a laugh.

‘Luz?’ Gus cautiously called the girl when he noticed that she was trying to take the map.

However, it was too late; she did not hear anyone near herself. As the map ended up in hands of hers, she tossed it in a bag of hers and broke into a run deep in the forest.

‘Luz! Where are you going!? Hold on!’ there was a voice behind her but she could not define to whom it belonged.

Willow may be right. She liked Amity for real. She liked her from the very beginning because of the extraordinary disposition of hers, the incredible intelligence of hers, the pursuit of success of hers. Because in fact, she was vulnerable and Luz saw it and fully understood it, empathised it. Because she was alive and was not alike the person who longed for her rescue.

Amity was a symbol of normality, was that being ordinary to which other people was trying to get Luz used all this time. She was better than Luz. That was why the latter could not let the sympathy of hers ruin everything. Their relationship had been predeterminedly wrong, beyond normalcy. A girl and a girl, what a silly thing. Of course, the issues were not in the fact that Luz might struggle with self-acceptance. No, for as long as she could remember, she had knew that the heart of hers could flutter in front of both boys and girls. She was used to this part of her identity, she did not see anything wrong in that.

The ones who did see were such as like Amity's parents. At least, these lines from the diary of hers pointed up the fact that the girl's family was not the most empathetic and loving as they had driven her to this sad condition. The demeanour of hers itself pointed up the fact that she was taught to chase achievements, they made her do it, deprived her of the opportunity to see the life on the other side of pride in heirloom. It was not her who chose this path.

Moreover, they were not just two girls. They were a witch and a human! Such a bond, such a relationship both were out of the way. If Luz let herself return feeling of the girl entangled in the gravity of the current circumstances, if she decided to ignore the responsibility for another person's future she had, she would warp Amity's life. The same way Amity's parents had promised to warp Willow's life. And Luz knew that she would not be able to offer something in exchange. She was an outsider, a strange girl fond of childish things, focused on dreams of hers that would not come true, not risen to heights thus far. Being with her meant being a part of censure. On this side true happiness could not be reached.

Anyway, any pro argument made no difference since Luz sooner or later would come back to her Human Realm.

She stopped short, bent double, closing the hazel eyes of hers and gasping. The map was over, led her to the familiar place. There was nothing but trees around, with no success trying to hide sunshine behind leaves of theirs. And there was also a wood-like cave alluring bystanders. The Bat Queen's nest, to be exact.

Luz, hesitatingly clenched fists of hers, walked into the dark labyrinth and began to remember which way she should go to get out of the bone trap. She was lucky that the perfect visual memory of hers let her easily get to the exact part of the cave. A torn spider's web up above. Someone's blood on the right. Someone's flesh nearby, in a couple of steps. A crook next. After it there was a tunnel, as black as night. An aureate big space without ceiling on the left of it.

The girl sighed and went forward, cautiously exploring this naturally occurring space to learn if there was any signs of Queen. The sound of her breath echoed from stonewood walls. It seemed that there was no one else except herself. Tension was running high, former determination to find Amity was successively fading away. May it be that she should not leave Willow and Gus?

Suddenly, a strict voice with slight accent was heard from behind:

‘Human. What are you doing here?’ bright-red eyes started to glow in front of Luz horror-stricken jumped a few feet back. That ‘suddenly’ appeared to be too much sudden. ‘I know, you promised to help but I don't need your help now.’

‘Bat Queen!?’ the girl put a hand of hers to the chest of hers, trying to gain breath of hers. The heart of hers was going to burst. ‘Phew! You really scared me,’ she playfully smirked a few seconds later, came to thought about the way to break the ice between them and to start a conversation with the palisman more freely. ‘Why don't you make some noises before showing up?’

Bat Queen was silent; the face of hers showed no emotion. Instead of emotions, she was boring holes right through the girl by glare and was not moving. She could not understand why a question of hers was not answered and why instead of the answer she was given an inappropriate advice. Luz, recieved no receptive audience, suddenly felt that she had shivers running up and down a spine of hers and started to shift weight from one foot to the other. For a moment Queen frowned; this moment she finally realised that the ‘advice’ was not just an advice but silly joke.

However, she decided to suppress an anger of hers and repeat a question but slowly (in case people had communication problems):

‘What do you need?’

‘Fi-i-ine,’ Luz stretched, chuckled awkwardly. A voice of hers was slightly fading; she gazed at the small rock under her feet. ‘Frankly speaking, I came here because the one who needs help is me. My friend Amity, the witch with the most beautiful, incredible aquamarine hair and with light-brown roots,’ for a moment memories flashed in front of her and the girl wistfully smiled, ‘got lost somewhere in this forest.’

Former determination got back to her. She closed a fist of hers in a triumphant manner in front of herself and looked Bat Queen in the confused eyes of hers.

‘The map must've brought her in your cave. Do you know where she could go?’

‘Which map?’ the palisman raised the eyebrows of hers, trying to remember such a description.

‘I..!’ the girl trailed off; former courage was substituted by a child-like perplexity. ‘To tell the truth, I myself am dimly aware what this map exactly is. It mapped a route to the ball of yarn.’

Bat Queen, in a deep thought, went into the depths of the cave, to the countless treasures of hers and to the sleeping children of hers emerging from behind a pile of snails. Though, from a distance it more seemed that she just got uninterested in listening to the strange tale of maps leading to yarns.

‘It's a silly thing to go after it in the forest, isn't it?’ Luz went on, tried to break the ice again. ‘Ha-ha, yeah, such a silly thing... Maybe, this ball's magical or something?’

The palisman looked behind and gave the girl a menacing glance; it was better for the latter to clarify the situation in a more concise way, otherwise Queen would ‘very kindly’ send an unbidden guest away with a flea in the ear of hers.

‘Well, it doesn't matter,’ as a sign of understanding, the guest winked, with a thumb and forefinger of hers sticking out. ‘The most important thing here is that this ball should've been in your cave and Amity should've come for it.’

‘She already stole it,’ without hesitation, the creature answered.

‘What? Stole it?’ Luz's face expressed an ultimate confusion.

‘Yes. Rudely and shamelessly. My poor kids...’ Queen meltingly looked at the children of hers lying among snails. ‘That ball was their comfort blanket... Except, surely, heads of living creatures that can be sucked. And your witch! She came and bamboozled them out of it. Now my little ones cry all day and can't calm down. I barely put them to bed now. And everything's because of her!’ she heatedly roared and the children, woken up by such a noise, started to howl.

‘It can't be so...’ the girl's eyes was wandering about the ground. ‘It's probably a mistake. Amity... She... She couldn't do that!’ she confidently concluded, frowned. ‘Bat Queen, I beg you, please, tell me where she went with this ball.’

‘I may lead you but what's the point of that?’ the unhappy creature made unsuccessful attempts to hush the little children of hers jumping on a pile of snails. ‘The witch will never come back.’

Luz was thrown into cold and terror. She was not just thrown, she was launched, was catapulted. She felt that all her body became numb because of an instant lack of blood, knees of hers were quaking. Eyes of hers were wide opened and she herself parted lips of hers, without words to say. That stupor was for several seconds but to the girl, it lasted for eternity. And this eternity there were no thoughts in the head of hers, except Queen's words at a furious pace: ‘The witch. Will. Never. Come back.’

‘Why!?’ she discomposedly shouted as she came to the senses of hers. The heart of hers beated more rapidly than at the moment when the palisman scared her. And that scaring feeling actually had swept her from top to toe, it was one of the most horrible feelings. ‘Please, answer me! I'll do everything to fix the situation!’ tears quietly blurred her eyes but Luz tried her best not to cry, quashing this tightness of her chest. She impulsively fell to the knees, begging. ‘I'll bring the ball of yarn back to your children, I'll wash them, I'll... I'm even ready to tidy your cave and perform all your tests again and again!’

Frankly speaking, she made Queen interested in her as far back as when she promised to give the ball of yarn back. The palisman thoughtfully looked at the grovelling human in front of her, arrogantly examined her from all sides, focused on the hazel eyes. Soon she sighed, nodded.

‘Fine, human. Last time we met each other you had proved your dedication. I trust you, so listen,’ she closed eyes of hers, mystifyingly still managed to take care of her chaotic children. ‘That witch could not get away with it, with her offence, and I chased her. She was as swift as the wind. At some moment I was even afraid that I had lost sight of her but then... Then I saw it.’

‘What?’

‘A cockatrice,’ she abruptly opened eyes of hers and bloodthirstily, somewhat madly gazed at the listener of hers. ‘A very, very uncommon cockatrice. Mostly, he looked natural; a long tail, two wings covered with feathers, cock feet. But still, his body was not scaled, it was bird-like, in all these grey feathers. And his snout, his snaky snout...’ concerned, she shook head of hers. ‘Cockatrices are very rare creatures. They encountered little on the Boiling Isles, especially in my forest. After all, it is a home for the abandoned palismans for a reason; it is a safe place for them.’

‘How awful...’ Luz could not believe the ears of hers. So that the thousand-year-old creature did not know who had intruded into the territory of hers... It was extremely odd. And creepy. ‘What did it do? Did Amity run away from it?’

‘No,’ Luz did not have strength to express any negative emotions, so she was just silently absorbing new information, hoping that she would hear something good at least. ‘She became numb in front of him but for some reason she did not turn to stone. And that cockatrice. He did not try to rip her head off. He was ready to jump down her throat and suck her blood.’

‘Dios mío…’ the girl clutched head of hers.

‘Worry not, human. When that cockatrice saw me, he frightened,’ Queen chuckled smugly, ‘and instead of biting her he decided to turn her by his glare. Not into stone though; into...’ she trailed off and thought to herself for one moment, trying to choose the right word. Finally, the tricky idea occurred to her, and she smiled slyly, ‘a treasure. And to return her to witch form of hers you have to make her confess her acts of atrocity.’

The answer was not long in coming.

‘Can you take me to her?’

Queen was about to agree when one of the smallest offspring of hers bit a chin of hers. Because of insane pain, she lost temper of hers and roared at him and he frightenedly cried more than ever. She had to discomposedly take him into the arms of hers and start to rock him to make amends for a wrong. Then came the cause why the consent was not been able to be given that simply.

‘But who then will look after my babies?’ Queen asked mischievously.

Luz knew no answer. She had no one, no one else around at all who could help and play a role of a nanny while the real mother and she would be absent. Desperate and tired, she was staring at the ground, trying to come up with a new plan to get to exact place. There were no ideas; time inexorably flew. Anxiety announced itself again. It did by a lump in the throat, by tremor of hands, by chaos and fixation on the same theme in mind. Some days ago, Luz was about to run as hell to the most dangerous adventure but now she got completely disappointed in herself and her strength. Imagine, everything was because of one person. How were such changes possible?

Fortunately, the little ears of hers caught the sound of someone's voices from the depth of the cave. Deep boyish and raspy girlish. Concerned Gus and bothered Willow. It was them definitely! At least, according to the flattest cries, it was easy to conclude that only they could look for a human in this forest.

Luz was full of happiness. She was even eager to jump on the same place and then ran to the exit to hug the friends of hers. However, she controlled herself, only to give a long-awaited answer:

‘My friends will.’

That was time when the girl let herself run out of the dark maze toward Gus and Willow. Needless to say, they were displeased with Luz going away deep in the forest all on her own. They got such a tremendous fright that in no time they even packed all their stuff and rushed headlong into a searching of her. Luz was only smiling, knew that all their complaints were not worth paying attention to; just a step to make and she would rescue Amity. And these two magic creatures would help her in that deal yet now.

She aptly put them in the way of things; all they had to do is to look after Bat Queen's children. At first, both Gus and Willow, as they heard Luz's will, held out hands before themselves in defence and started to concoct an excuse just to not do the bidding of hers. Without doubt, they sincerely wanted to help Luz. They wanted to lighten her burden of a person deep in love (as Willow interpreted it) and lost (as Gus interpreted it). They were ready to tackle any problem. It was just that Bat Queen's children were excluded from the scope of work. Even Eda had a hard time with them, what could we say about ordinary teenagers?

However, the previous experience of three friends' conflict cleared the air, so both Gus and Willow unwillingly agreed to go in the aureate hall. Bat Queen decided to keep them out of the loop on the matter of how to take care of her children properly, just as she had done with Eda. That was why she, had calmly found her way out the nest of hers, instantly spread the wings of hers and rapidly flew forward. On foot, Luz was barely keeping pace with her.

Soon the girl saw an immense field illuminated by the morning sun. Tall grass, festooned with bright, incredible, unfamiliar to her at all flowers and covered with fancy dew, was swinging in the wind. In the centre there was an imperceptible stone well that was unlikely being used in the space of hundreds years.

Luz felt the touch of freshness on the face of hers for the first time even though fatigue she had been successfully ignoring had been about to prevail her during the whole night. She raised the eyes of hers and saw the sky. It was a virgin territory, a faithfully incomprehensible territory, the infinite of turquoise hues tenderly kissing its minors.

‘Human,’ Bat Queen tore her from thinking. ‘It was here. In this very field. Search.’

‘Search for what?’

‘For a treasure. Something that's the greatest wealth to you,’ she finished and looked around. ‘You're so excited with this morning. Maybe, the supreme value is nature? Then, the answer is flowers. Pick one.’

Luz was puzzled. To pick one? One flower? Among thousands of its brethren? It was impossible to do it at the first attempt. May it be that it was not necessary to do it at the first attempt? May it be that she had bunch of attempts? Then she should ask Bat Queen before starting the rescue activity of hers. However, the moment she raised a hand of hers and opened mouth of hers, she set sights on the fact that this bunch of attempts would confuse her and she would have to look for Amity again and again several heart-shredding days. Amity did not deserve such a fate of waiting.

She need to think harder.

What is the greatest wealth to her? Perhaps, this flower is supposed to be special. Luz took a step forward, then one more step. Next minute she confidently walked about the whole field in order to find the special one flower of hers. Once there was a book named ‘The Little Prince.’ Here, the most important flower in the world was the red rose. But in the circumstances of the Demon Realm there was no familiar roses. Luz met almost none of those flowers she knew anything about in the Human Realm.

May it be that the supreme value is not nature? At least, for Luz. She took a look at ugly stone well and walked up to it. It was disgustingly dirty, overgrown by moss and grass. Cobblestone was damaged in some parts and its fragments were on the ground near the flowers, living out their remaining days. Could it be possible that this situation was a puzzle about not judging a book by its cover?

Luz dared to explore the dark and bad smelling abyss. There were sparkling wet snails on its bottom. There were thousands of them. It looked like the value of theirs was not possible to express by all existing numbers, like they were new, recently struck. She thought that from a distance this scene looked as if she was standing first in line for the wishing well and just waiting for the chance to toss one more snail. The only wish of hers then would have been to find Amity, to end all this mess. However, she did not even have anything like pittance. And it was not even vital during the forest trip.

So that meant that stone well and snails on its bottom were not the greatest wealth as she depreciated the latter the moment she was packing the things of hers back in the Owl House. Luz sighed tiredly and walked all over the well, decided to try her luck on the other side of the field. That very time she stumbled on something and found the face of hers in the grass.

Brushed herself off, she took a look on the subject of her bruises, without a trace of anger or disappointment. What a strange news. The subject was grey rag doll. Instead of its eyes there were yellow buttons. Nothing more. Only complete dirt across its body due to poor conditions around.

Luz smiled warmly. What a curious doll. How could it appear here? She did not know. But it seemed to her that this doll was that exact favourite toy right from the childhood of hers. The toy that decided not to be forgotten and left in the storeroom of a big human house. The toy that found its way to the Demon Realm by itself and got on its mistress's heels in search of adventure.

She took the mysterious doll and went numb. The world suddenly stopped and then got its perfect form. It was a signal you were not able to hear without feeling all these impulses on skin of yours. It was an incomprehensible form of intimacy as if you felt its reflection on the crystal clear surface of a lake. It was a storm of different emotions and feelings, pleasant prickly sensation of a current. It was a touch. Imponderable and tender. The same as the tiny palm of the young wonder girl with hair of aquamarine.

Abandoned and unwanted for a long time already. Just as in the diary. Luz had a desire to cry. Realisation that she had finally found Amity, that she was bearing her in hands right now, that she would definitely rescue her painted the tips of her ears pink. It made skin of hers crawl across spine of hers and evaporated, become a coherent whole with human feet. She started to run right to Bat Queen, happily radiating her own source of light.

‘It's her!’ she yelled at the top of her voice because of fast running and wrong breath. ‘Amity! I've found her!’

‘Fine, human,’ the palisman answered calmly, put the received doll on the ground in front of herself and stepped back a little. ‘If it's your final choice, it's time to find out whether it's correct.’

Eyes of hers lit up with stabbing bright light, searing skin of Luz standing near with its innocent rays. Startlingly, yellow buttons started to shine too and the doll soared in the sky, got up to amazed Luz's head. From second to second, light from all sides was increasing, blinding the girl. At the supreme moment, she had to bury the face of hers in hands only not to lose the ability of hers to see.

When everything ended, there was a doll about five foot in height. To be exact, this doll was Amity, that very Amity Blight absently looking around. She had a distinction from her true appearance only because the flesh of hers was rag and the pupils of hers (not eyes themselves) were substituted with yellow buttons. It was still nice to see her as Luz thought. She was already going to dart off and hug the girl tightly when Bat Queen, as if she anticipated her train of thoughts, stopped her with a wave of the hand. That was the moment when Amity noticed who was standing near her.

‘Luz? Is that you?’ a real sweet voice of hers was woven of myriads of the perfect thinnest thread. ‘Is that really you!?’ she smiled exhaustedly, closed eyes of hers in reverie. ‘I thought that I would never see you again.’

‘Witch,’ Queen started, not given Luz even a chance to at least welcome the friend of hers. ‘You've got a few minutes to be convicted.’

‘To be convicted?’ Amity was startled, there were pupils in the wide open eyes of hers constricted. ‘Of what?’

‘I guess Bat Queen wants to know why you stole her ball of yarn,’ Luz shrugged.

‘Her ball of yarn?’ she smiled bitterly. ‘You want to know what my background story is? Fine. I've found treasure map on my way home and decided to follow its route. I've just wanted to make my family a little more wealthy than it already is. That map's led me to the ball of yarn, told me that it's my next direction sign. That's the whole story.’

Nothing happened.

Queen angrily looked at Amity, ready to burst into rage any minute.

‘I don't understand. Something was supposed to happen, wasn't it?’ the brown-headed girl questioned the creature next to her.

‘It was. But only if she told the truth. Witch!’ the palisman yelled. ‘You either tell it like it is and become yourself or stay just a silly toy abandoned next to the old stone well forever!’

The witch was stretching the time, hesitating to answer. Doubts gnaws at her, billion of doubts in absolutely different capacities. It seemed to her as if one word of hers would break not only a spell but all her previous life. Was it worth to risk that much? Had it been worth to come all that way only to get nothing good in return? To get only pain and sorrow. Only disappointment.

‘Amity! Please!’ Luz begged.

‘I... I can't,’ hardly noticeable little tears came to Amity's eyes emerged from pollen appearred out of nowhere. ‘I'm so sorry, Luz. I'd like to tell the truth but I can't. I can't do it in front of her,’ she pointed at the creature that was angry for a while already.

But she could. She just did not want to overcome herself because of a long adopted mechanism ‘You cannot show your vulnerability.’

‘Amity, it's our last chance,’ Luz yelled, pushing herself beyond pain of hers. ‘We've got too little time. I beg you, please, tell the truth!’

Luz begged her. Luz needed her. Amity had wanted that to happen for a long time. However, every time she understood that she wanted to say ‘I love you,’ she got lost in space and time. She felt that the tongue of hers wound itself into that very damn ball of human yarn. She felt that thousands of sharp spears grew up on its surface. And she was afraid of moving it because she could get hurt even though these wounds were not able to recapture that spectrum of her current condition even closely.

She wanted to stop the mouth of hers with hands but even without a help of hers it managed to do it, turning into a bear trap caught its prey. To love was a prune pit because of which Amity was suffocating and rattling in agony of death. Not a single gesture of hers, not a sincere gaze of hers, not a heavy sigh of hers could betray her darkest secret; a reason why all of them were here. But the witch heart of hers was pounding furiously, traitorously, made her think about freedom.

Is it really worth to deprive yourself of the opportunity to look in these caramel eyes forever only to keep a silly secret?

‘Fine,’ the witch was shivering and screwed up the eyes of hers. ‘I'll tell the truth. I've been keeping these feelings for a long time. They constrict my chest and my face burns with a special kind of magic creating flame. And I just... never know what to do in this situation. And I could never guess if you felt the same, Luz, when you saw me,’ for the first time ever, in a moment of love heat she dared to raise the eyes of hers and look at the subject of such a high temperature under her skin. ‘It seemed to me that you didn't. And I... It turned out that I believed that love must be deserved. Love of parents, love of siblings, love of friends, love of teachers. And I wanted to deserve yours.’

That was the moment of truth. The moment when every word of hers was alike a half-tone of the most genius serenade. All the time the truth had been hidden behind the shadows of honesty, around the corner from the beating of the amorous heart. As long as you stop expecting something in return, you gain the ability to express your sacred love sincerely, flawlessly, undoubtedly. If and only if this love trembles with echo not only in chest but in warm ears of a human against you, that very human is finally able to accept it.

‘I met Yuha that day. He, the one from my surroundings, just a stranger, told me that he knew how to gain human love, how to impress you and direct your attention to me. That strange creature promised that the ball of yarn spun by a human would lead me to the greatest wealth that could delight you. It's just that I have to get that ball. And I did by meeting... you,’ she, quite unsure, looked at Queen, not knowing the name of hers, ‘and one ugly cockatrice. And before I became... that way, I thought. I thought that I was happy when I was quietly looking at my quirky Luz and was afraid of confessing to her. I thought that I was sorry for accepting this adventure.’

To Luz, these words were responding with warmth, tendance, perfect understanding. Amity would not have dared to start this adventure if she was happy about family of hers, ‘friends’ of hers, if they were happy about her. What a wonder, a human and a witch turned out being similar to each other in their inability to fit in routine working only in terms of the society. Amity was deeply unhappy in that loneliness of hers the same way Luz had been all these years when they told her that her dreams were fancy's child having nothing in common with reality.

However, Luz got her own way. She learnt to cast spells, she saved talented witches' lives. She was also studying to become a witch herself in the most wonderful school, surrounded by the friends of hers who share interests with her. And the same way Amity was worth the best things in the life of hers for all these years she had been waiting for the truth. And only Luz, that funny and finally now sorted out her feelings girl, could give her these ‘the best things.’ That wall between them which she imagined herself all this time had never been firmer than a nut shell.

There was no point to try being the most ordinary creature if you were not able to trust your own heart. All that time the answer had been plain to see and dancing on the waves of thoughts by a gust of soft wind of feelings. No, Amity had been wrong yet. It was better to try than to feel sorry for the contrary all your life. And Luz were ready to dare.

After all, being ordinary meant being yourself, not an echo of your surroundings.

There was nothing more right than the feelings of hers. There was nothing that could be scarier and bigger than them. The moment Luz realised that, the field was illumined by the brightest flash of light ephemerally flattering with its rays stars far away. After that flash there was a sound of falling. And the girl finally saw the witch with lovely snow white skin of hers, with dainty hands of hers, with long black eyelashes of hers, with perfect hair of hers. She looked even more alluring than she had ingrained in the mind.

Luz made a move towards Amity, tightly hugging her just as she dreamt once:

‘Amity! I'm so happy you're alive!’ she was smiling, ignoring rain of tears on her cheeks.

‘Luz...’ the vigourless witch in her hands sang with that brilliant voice of hers.

‘It's because of the spell,’ Bat Queen walked up, having none of total joy. ‘It drew the strength from its preys for conversion. Witch,’ she addressed to Amity, gave the mysterious red flower in the aquamarine curls a squinted look. ‘That creature who told you about the yarns. How did he look?’

‘Yuha..?’ Amity gave it a thought, trying to remember the strange image from that unfortunate evening on the shore. ‘He looked just as a human. At least, according to Luz's appearance and Gus's stories. However, he did not have legs. There was a scaly tail instead of them. And eyes, he had no eyes. That's... That's all I remember.’

‘I got you, witch,’ Queen took the flower that gave her an incentive of curiousity and in no time it turned into the familiar toy in her clawed hands, into the ball of yarn. Her guess was proved. ‘The creature and that cockatrice. Maybe, they're the same one demon.’

‘Wait!’ Luz brightened up. ‘How's demon? I... I don't remember the demon with such a description in the King's book. Do you know him? Who is he?’

‘All that I know is that he arrived from the Human Realm many hundreds years ago. Though, I'm not even sure in that number,’ the palisman turned around and headed to the forest. ‘I got to tell my kids the good news as soon as possible.’

The second bat wings disappeared in the wildwood, Amity guiltily looked at Luz. The fact that she was in her hands did not confuse her for some reason.

‘I'm sorry, Luz.’

‘For what?’ the girl was surprised.

‘For exposing you and myself to that danger. I'm sorry for maring our relations just for a naïve intention to deserve your love.’

Luz laughed softly and tenderly like the laugh of hers was snow white marshmallow. Amity could not get it why she was laughing. She was just silently watching the beaming smile, the viceless teeth, the gleaming eyes until she was struck. Suddenly, Luz took her face with warm hands of hers and innocently kissed her virgin lips. Only for a moment. A moment that in witch fantasy very fast stretched out into a decade of rainbow hazeless years in a cradle of flowers looking similar to dandelions from the Human Realm. Right after that moment Luz tightly cuddled up to Amity, afraid of any distance between the miraculously found girl and herself.

‘Amity, you silly!’ she was twittering happily. ‘Love is not a feeling you have to prove to me. I love you just for the fact that you are, you're alive and breathing down my neck. That naturalness is the real love. At least, I believe so.’

The girl in her hands bursted into tears. For the very first time, in front of close one she brought down the walls and exposed to the light of the day the main weakness of hers. Her feelings. She grew out of that senses so much that for a second she got scaried because she thought that this event was only a dream. That was why she put her arms around her significant other's back more tightly; just to prove otherwise. And by proving that she realised that for the very first time she was really sure that she felt at home.

You love someone not because someone deserves that but because someone needs it. That was the truth she was chasing so eagerly. What a lark... Family taught her by which methods you could achieve success, how to find the best of the best among witches. Teachers taught her of what minerals were composed, how much efforts it needed to create one radiant sphere. She herself learnt from textbooks how much dust was in the air and why the palismans came to life.

Why during all these years did no one tell her that a human embrace was free? And why did no one tell her that she did not have to learn all of these to love the most cherished person in all parallel universes?

In these minutes of trust, in which intimacy was measured in rhythmic breathes of two happy creatures, Luz nor Amity heard that on the stone well's bottom snails rang hardly noticeable.

‘Бүтән юхаланыу мәғәнә юҡ,’ there was a quiet bass, drowned in that moment forever.  
  


However, its origin is a whole different story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to say that many people who are familiar with my works (professional ones too if I could call them so) very often meet the fact that in the end my main characters are killed by me or do not achieve something they really want so they eventually have to go on sinking in their traumas and simultaneously getting new ones. Mostly, I consider such endings as an acceptance of life troubles, a humility before them. I consider them so not because they really must be accepted anyhow but because they are the patterns that I have been taught by life and that sometimes work in it.
> 
> Since the very beginning I have designed this fanfiction as a work in which I can reflect on the theme of my own fears and respond positively to them for the first time. And as it seemed to me, Amity and Luz with their background stories were a perfect fit for that purpose. I fully understand Amity and I know how it feels when you're tangled up in terms of your own violence and vulnerability, when you're lost in your own feelings. And also, I can remember some events from my life when the society expected from me the same role they expected from Luz. And I really wanted to give them a happy end in quite a touch (that is why it is a fairy tale, not a very serious work. Though, even this fairy tale took me several weeks to write...).
> 
> I think that each of us needs love no matter how traumatised or ‘difficult’ we are. And each of us has a right to get it and learn to express it in return. All our changes are for the best :)


End file.
